Made to move

I always said that there are 3 keys to longevity and good health: nutrition, movement, and emotional detox. In this post I’m going to zoom in on movement for a healthy lifestyle - the real healthy, and not just practicing twisted yoga poses to show off or being a gym rat with inflated yet weak muscles.

Let’s dive in…

Diversity of movement

First of all, I completely agree with the advice of Dr. Robin Berzin in the book State Change that the best is to aim for:

• two days of aerobic exercise per week

• two days of controlled movement like Yoga or QiGong per week

• two days of strength-building exercise per week

• one day of rest

Diversity of movement helps build body flexibility, strength, and oxygenation through the rotation of activities, which allows for intensity and needed pauses for each aspect.

Now let’s see what are some good options for each type of workout…

1. Aerobic exercise

Aerobic exercise, or cardio, is anything that increases your breathing and heart rate. It basically improves your heart and lungs, and your body gets better at increasing the level of oxygen in the blood and transporting it to your cells.

Some examples of aerobic exercise or cardio are brisk walking, running, cycling, jumping rope, rowing, or swimming.

My personal favorites and things that are available activities for the retreats at Barcelona Health Club are:

1.1 Aerobic dance

Aerobic dance is dancing freely to upbeat music, in a way that makes you sweat, breathe harder, and gets your heart beating faster.

This is both exercise and fun and is usually a great way to start the day or take a me-time break throughout the day.

I’ve put together a playlist for aerobic dance, so check it out and start moving, bouncing, jumping, spinning, and what ever else the rhythm triggers in you.

1.2 Hike

Doing cardio while surrounded by the fresh air and beautiful greenery of a forest is priceless. So get your sports shoes on, and a bottle of water, and head into the wilderness until you feel your breathing and heart beat are fast, and keep going.

During Barcelona Health Club retreats you can go for a hike following the trail starting right in front of the house. The photo below is a spot just 10 min away walking from the front door.

1.3 Rowing

A rowing machine provides both cardio and strength building, which I will cover soon. Therefore, I consider it the most complete gym equipment one can have.

And, of course, there is one water-based rowing machine available on location at Barcelona Health Club, facing a mountain view, as you can see in the photo below.

2. Mindful movement

QiGong and Yoga were developed thousands of years ago in the lands of nowadays China, and respectively India. And the reason why they are still used after thousands of years is that they are very powerful body-mind exercises that combine stretching, gentle movement, energy mindfulness, meditation, and breathwork.

2.1 QiGong

QiGong is my personal favorite as it can be done anywhere, anytime, needing nothing else besides your own body and attention.

QiGong exercises focus on unblocking and moving energy throughout the body with very gentle movements and mindful focus.

My two current go-to sources for QiGong are:

• a Mindvalley course on QiGong by Lee Holden

• a book called “The Way of QiGong” by Kenneth Cohen

Alternatively, you can find plenty of free QiGong sessions on youtube.

At Barcelona Health Club you can practice QiGong together with the host, who started immersing herself into QiGong exercises and learning the deep principles of it.

2.2 Yoga

Yoga has become really famous worldwide. However, it became famous in a very superficial way, being all about some beautifully twisted poses. But yoga is so much more than that, it combines positions, breathwork, and meditation for mindfully moving energy throughout the body.

For an actual good source on yoga, I recommend the books by Swami Satyananda Saraswati.

3. Strength-building exercise

To live long and healthy, muscles are an important aspect. Also, more muscle mass increases metabolism and helps burn more calories per minute, even in rested states.

Strength-building exercises are recommended two days per week, leaving a break of ideally two days between them. That is because muscle is built by actually first destroying old muscle and then rebuilding it, which requires breaks.

Some examples of strength-building exercises are squats, push-ups, planks, weight-lifting, and the like.

3.1 Rowing

My personal favorite and recommended strength-building activity at Barcelona Health Club is using a rowing machine, which is available on location.

The rowing machine is the most efficient gym machine out there, as it works out 90% of the muscles.

Hence with just a 10-20 min workout you are pretty much done for the day, and you don’t need to switch from machine to machine and from one type of workout to another.

3.2 Home workouts

There are plenty of apps and youtube videos out there for strength-building exercises at home. When I asked friends for a recommendation, this one by Chloe Ting stood out:

Ready to get the juices flowing? I hope this gives you a nice overview and start point for improving your movement practices, and therefore your health.

On the other hand, if you struggle to get moving, and no matter how much you want to get to exercise you just can’t go for it or sustain it, I understand you. I’ve been through the same, and I learned that sometimes the body is too stressed to add workouts. However, there are ways to get out of that situation. I wrote about my story on chronic fatigue in this blog post. I hope this will help you reset.